RE: [VM,ALL] Revised scope statement

Thomas, and all

I have a few general comments about this TF proposal.

1. Seems to me there is a great deal of overlap with PORT, alias THES, TF. In fact, I
understand VM work to be in many respects an extension or generalization of THES work,
since a Thesaurus is a specific organization of a Vocabulary for a specific application
(unless I miss something). How will the two TF define their specific scope?

2. I share the concern expressed by Alan about "terminological" vs "conceptual" approaches
of Vocabulary, and the need for clarification about it in the SW community. SKOS input is
certainly to be brought to the table, as well as current debates about use of dc:subject
in various places.

3. It strikes me how the scope and objectives are quite similar to those we set three
years ago when founding the OASIS Published Subjects Technical Committee:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=tm-pubsubj
Note that this TC work has been in sort of standby for a year or so, out of both lack of
task force, and lack of consensus about how to tackle further deep the details of very
difficult issues left on the table:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tm-pubsubj/docs/recommendations/issues.htm
even if a very generic recommendation was eventually released in 2003:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/3050/pubsubj-pt1-1.02-cs.pdf

I hope this work "as is" could be food for thought for this TF.

Looking into the details, I found at least a dozen of very difficult and open issues on
the table. The objective of capturing the state of the art for all of them in a single
technical note seems highly challenging, to say the least. So I was about to say "count me
in" for this TF ... but OTOH I'm a bit scared to get lost again in a known maze :(

Bernard

Bernard Vatant
Senior Consultant
Knowledge Engineering
Mondeca - www.mondeca.com
bernard.vatant@mondeca.com

Received on Wednesday, 16 June 2004 12:05:23 UTC